Two-way radios can transmit as well as receive and provide users the ability to wirelessly communicate with each other on a small network over a radio channel. Two-way radios are mostly used by mobile field personnel in agencies such as police, fire departments, detective agencies, highway patrol, border patrol, crime investigation agencies, emergency medical services, municipal services, military, and the like to communicate with other mobile field personnel in the particular agency or a talk group. Two-way radios are available in mobile, stationary base, hand-held portable, and vehicle mounted configurations.
Two-way radios usually operate either in a conventional communication system or in a trunked communication system. In both of these systems, a user of a two-way radio presses a push-to-talk (PTT) button to request an opportunity to transmit. Alternatively, in another example of the conventional communication system, the user of the two-way radio may directly start transmitting after pressing the PTT button. In the conventional communication system, the radio channels over which a particular group of two-way radios communicate are dedicated for the group and cannot be assigned to any other group even if the dedicated radio channels are idle. Whereas, in the trunked communication system, a pool of all the radio voice channels is maintained and a radio control channel is used to assign a radio voice channel to a particular group of two-way radios from the pool as and when required. The radio voice channel is later returned to the pool upon completion of communication between the particular groups of two-way radios.
In the conventional communication system, the communication between the transmitting two-way radio and the receiving two-way radio(s) goes through a repeater. In the trunked communication system, the communication between the transmitting two-way radio and the receiving two-way radio(s) goes through a trunked system comprising a system controller which communicates with radios by means of a control channel. However, there can be situations where a user of a two-way radio desires to quickly and efficiently communicate with another two-way radio or a group of two-way radios without using the repeater or the trunked system.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved two-way radio which can communicate directly with other two-way radio(s) alleviating the need for an interim network element such as the repeater or the trunked system to relay communications.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.